by Amanda Rose
Hark felt his heart skip a beat; he’d read about the story of the lone survivor from the derelict Ethlana ship and how the tendrils had enveloped the ship and killed the crew. Calm down, he told himself, that was after hundreds of years of travelling into dead space. We’re nowhere near them. He re-ran the scans and they came back the same. He felt a sinking feeling in his gut.
Watching and waiting, Hark continuously re-ran the radar scans every 5 minutes. After an hour it was clear there was something huge out there moving in their direction. They’re coming. How? He wondered, his heart racing. Then it dawned on him, They must have been following that derelict ship through dead space all these years! They were always coming… His eyes fixated on the probe, Oh no! And we just helped them find us!
Hark turned the ship around and set a course for the wormhole at full speed. The ship was jostled at the sudden movement. Krass came into the cockpit a few minutes later, “What are you doing?” he demanded.
“They’re out there!” Hark said, his eyes fixed forward on flying the ship.
“What are you talking about?” Krass asked, annoyed.
“The tendrils! The ones that were out in the middle of the void, they’re here!” Hark yelled. He then pointed to the terminal next to him, “Look at the damn readings!”
Krass sat down in the seat next to him and went through the radar recordings. “This can’t be,” he said in disbelief.
“Don’t you see? They’ve been on their way all these years! They’re just slower than the ones that were on the ship, but now they’re here, and that tendril we gave the probe to just told them where to go!” Hark explained.
“They can’t be more than a few days away from meeting up with the probe,” Krass said looking at the distance on the screen. On the radar the tendrils showed up like a massive wall moving in. “There’s millions of them,” Krass swallowed hard.
“We have to warn the Conclave,” Hark said with determination.
Chapter 20: Incoming
Norita had finished packing her belongings and was taking one last look around her stay room on the Bastion. She knew she would miss it, she already did; while her stay had been diplomatic it had felt like a much-needed reprieve. “All good things,” she smiled half-heartedly.
The Saisei was due to launch in two days’ time. All of the personnel transfers had been completed, the ship had been restocked with food, water, and fuel. The final rotation of visitation passes was all they were left waiting on. As soon as the rest of the passengers returned to the Saisei, it would be time to leave the Bastion docks.
Once they were ready to get underway, they would be making their journey through one of the nearby wormholes to the coordinates given to them by the Conclave. An unclaimed planet awaited them for colonization. The prospect both excited and terrified Norita. It had been the goal, after all, to find a new planet to make a home on but overseeing its development was never something Norita had thought she’d live to see. After a life in space, living on a planet seemed to be an intimidating prospect.
Norita took a moment before leaving the room, took a deep breath, and reminded herself she could do it. Zavion, you better be ready for the engineering feat of a lifetime, she thought, and smiled to herself. She picked up her suitcase and walked out.
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Koji left his quarters and was on the way to the hangar bays for flight drills. The Bastion had a pilots’ course set up around an asteroid belt, that tested pilots’ agility. Omega squad was suiting up to fly out to test out the course. After all this time, Koji was looking forward to getting back out to fly. He’d missed the feeling of freedom being in the cockpit had given him.
Just as Koji turned the corner of the hall he saw Gin walk by, “Hey, man! I haven’t seen you around in ages. You doing OK?” Koji asked.
“…Yeah, thanks,” Gin said, fidgeting with his sleeves. He was self-conscious of his scars, “Just checking in for duty. See you around.”
“Yeah, same here. See ya,” Koji said, and watched Gin walk off. He’d heard the story second hand from Freya about how Raiden had found Gin half-dead, nearly bled-out, in his room. He wanted to say something more, to know if Gin was really alright, but he didn’t know what to say. After a moment of hesitation, he turned around and again started to walk towards the hangar bay.
Freya’s quarters were along the way. Koji debated on whether or not to stop to see if she wanted to walk down together. They’d hardly spoken in over a week. She hadn’t been rude per se, just unavailable. Outside of their duty shifts, she slipped away. Is she avoiding me? He wondered. He knew she was taking the news about Raiden leaving the ship hard, but she had been distant even before that. I don’t know if I’ll ever understand women, he thought, and sighed.
He got to her door and stood in front of it for a minute before he finally knocked. He waited but there was no response. He tried the handle, and it was locked. “Freya?” he called through the door, but no reply came. He tried knocking once more, but when the door didn’t open, he walked on.
When Koji arrived at the hangar bay he found Freya was already there, doing her pre-flight checks. He walked over to her, “Hey,” he said and waved as he approached.
Freya looked over to see him and her face lit up, “Hey!” she smiled. No one else had arrived from their squad in the hangar bay yet, so, she ran over to him, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him deeply. Koji was intoxicated by her. All of his feelings of doubt melted away in an instant.
“What was that for?” he asked.
“I missed you. And, I’m sorry. I’ve been an ass lately,” she sighed. “I honestly don’t know what I’d do without you. Thanks for dealing with me and all my crazy.”
Koji placed his hand under her chin and tilted her head back, “We’re in this together,” he smiled.
“Whoa, need a minute?” Ken jived as he entered the room.
Koji and Freya took a step back from each other. “Very funny,” Freya said and rolled her eyes. She walked back over to her ship to complete her pre-flight checks. Ken smirked, stifling a laugh, as he headed for his ship.
Koji couldn’t help but keep his eyes on Freya. She had become his whole world. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, he hadn’t been looking for it, and had always seen Freya as one of the boys. But everything had changed, and now he felt incomplete without her.
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For the first time in hours Dr. Adonis Murakmi had a moment to himself. For the past week a steady stream of patients had come into his office, panic struck, about the idea of leaving their ship to live on the new planet. Neurosis’ were cropping up faster and faster. One woman had even had a full-blown panic attack in the middle of her session with him and had had to be taken out to be given a sedative to calm her down.
He rubbed his eyes, fatigued, and it was hardly noon yet. He still had 6 more patients to see before the end of the day. Over 200 years in space, generations confined to a ship… no wonder they’re scared. So many unknowns, he thought. His mind mulled over the fears everyone had divulged, some quite unfounded, but others quite real. How will our bodies handle real gravity? And our immune systems, are they compromised? We did alright on the Bastion I suppose, he thought, trying to remind himself to be the voice of reason.
Yesterday he had had the last mandatory session with Captain Gin Koto. Unlike the rest of his patients, Gin was incredibly excited at the prospect of colonizing. It had given him a new sense of purpose. Adonis had worried at first that it was a guise, or a form of escapism that Gin had been using to avoid his feelings, but it had seemed genuine, and he hoped it was.
Real air, land, a sky… a real home to go home to… I think I like the idea of that…
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Hiroshi had managed to get one last rotation on the Bastion before the Saisei was to depart from the station. He had debated putting in a request to move aboard the Bastion, but the prospect of colonization was too intriguing. He imagined having a home, with an incredible view, where he could prac
tice his art and have as much paper as his heart desired. He also couldn’t imagine leaving his students. While teaching wasn’t always everything he wished it could be, he felt a responsibility in shaping young minds.
While taking in the multiculturalism about the station he also had wanted to purchase some paper and art supplies before they left the Bastion. It was much more affordable, and the selection vastly improved compared to what the Saisei had to offer. He bought several large books with white and cream papers, pencils, pens, and paints. Hiroshi felt completely fulfilled after his shopping trip, and excited to practice his art more often.
As he made his way back towards the docking bay he decided to stop at a nearby diner to have some more of the exquisite foods the Bastion was abundant with before departing. He had heard that the planet they would colonize wasn’t a terribly far journey after passing through the nearby wormhole and hoped that would mean regular trips to the bastion on civilian freighters. I imagine we’ll have regular import and export with our new alien neighbors, he thought while sipping on a hot cup of tea.
Crash! Just as Hiroshi was halfway through eating his lunch the entire station shook as a major sound shockwave rippled through the ship. Hiroshi sprang to his feet alert, What in the world was that? He thought startled. It had clearly come from the direction of the Bastion docks. Hiroshi settled his tab quickly, grabbed his shopping bags, and hurried off towards the docks to investigate.
When Hiroshi arrived, he found the Veick science vessel had crashed into the docking port. A huge crowd had gathered around to watch. No one had been hurt, but the ship was badly damaged, and the dock would need serious repairs as well. A small fire had occurred, but it had been put out before Hiroshi arrived, and all that remained were the black burn marks. The Veick scientists were being escorted out of the ship by the port’s security.
“Let go of me! The council, I need to see the council!” Hiroshi had heard one of the Veick yelling at the security guard who tried to escort him.
Hiroshi didn’t fully understand what had happened, but he knew it was time to leave. The crowd had grown significantly since he had arrived, and he had to push his way through the mass of people to get away from the crash site. Once Hiroshi was out of the crowd he made his way down the walkway at a heightened pace to get to the Saisei and he boarded quickly.
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A few hours after the collision in the docks Norita was aboard the Saisei, in her room, unpacking her belongings. An incoming message beeped on her communicator. She tapped it on, “Hello?”
“Norita, it’s Merrick,” the voice came in.
“Merrick, how are you? I’m sorry you just missed me, I’m back aboard the Saisei,” she began to say.
He cut her off, “There’s a situation. When is the Saisei scheduled to leave?”
“Oh, don’t worry, the ship that flew into the dock was nowhere near us. We weren’t damaged at all,” she said as she hung up her blouse.
“It’s not that. Please, when do you leave?” he insisted.
Norita felt the hairs on the back of her neck raise, “About 50 hours from now.”
She was about to ask why when Merrick cut her off again, “That’s too late. You need to recall our people and depart immediately.”
“Merrick, slow down! What is going on?” Norita asked, her anxiety creeping up.
“The Veick science team, the ones that were running the tests on that tendril in the void, their scans show there are millions of tendrils, millions Norita, coming towards the wormhole. It looks like they were following the Ethlana ship for hundreds of years… Based on these projections they’ll start coming through the wormhole in about 40 hours. I’ve sent the data to your terminal,” he said with a heavy voice. Norita stood there, shocked, unsure what to do or say. “Are you still there?” Merrick asked.
“Y, yes, sorry… This is…” again she lost her words.
Merrick was sympathetic, “I know. That’s why you have to get out of here. I’m coordinating with the Conclave. They’re recalling all Black Shadow operatives and calling in the fleets. The Saisei isn’t armed, I don’t want to strip your fighter ships, you may very well need them to defend yourselves, but…”
“I’ll talk to General Yamamtoto. We’ll leave a squadron. If this battle can be contained here, that’s our best defense,” Norita said.
“Hm. Your wisdom precedes you Norita,” Merrick said, some relief in his tone.
“I’ll issue the recall to get our citizens back aboard the Saisei. We’ll depart by tomorrow, that should get us through the wormhole before the tendrils come into this system,” she said, trying to plan every contingency in her mind.
“Good luck, and Godspeed,” Merrick said.
“To us both,” Norita replied.
The comm clicked off and Norita felt wholly alone. Her mind worked quickly, deciphering problems and strategizing. She clicked her comm badge again and called General Yamamoto, telling him to meet her in her quarters immediately. She then contacted the staff coordinating shore leave and issued the immediate recall to go into effect.
Once Norita was sure she’d got the immediate actions underway to ensure their hasty departure from the Bastion, she sat at her desk and reviewed the data Merrick had sent. It was undeniable; the tendrils were coming. Their only defensive advantage was that their ships could fly faster than the tendrils could propel themselves through space.
Norita then pulled up the star map of the region. She had read the report Raiden had submitted, and the transcript from Vex’s debriefing. The tendrils, without a doubt, could completely destroy the Bastion if they could make it all the way to the station. And then? She shuddered. That would just be the beginning; millions of them could obliterate all space fairing vessels. And after that? She took a deep breath and pushed the negative thoughts from her mind. Stay focused, save your people! She demanded of herself.
As much as she tried to stay focused, fear lurked in her mind. Millions of tendrils were on their way, and the consequences of what that meant was horrifying. An impending attack was inevitable. The invasion was coming…
To be Continued…
Characters Guide
Saisei
Norita Hiroshu: Empress and Descendant of Kairu
Takeo Yamamoto: Military General and Descendant of Mack
Lieutenant Raiden Saito: Omega Squad Pilot
Lieutenant Freya Tanaka: Omega Squad Pilot
Corporal Koji Akagi: Omega Squad Pilot
Private Masato Ito: Omega Squad Pilot
Private Ken Adama: Omega Squad Pilot
Captain Gin Yoshini: Ground Troop and Descendant of Mei & Kato
Private Rei Davis: Ground Troop
Koi Goto: Pilot in Command for the Saisei
Zavion: Head Engineer
Doctor Seto Takei: Lead Scientist
Hiroshi Kasai: Teacher
Suki Rose: Student
Link Rose: Suki’s Father
Doctor Xena Nakamura: Medical Doctor
Doctor Adonis Murakami: Therapist
Niko Adai: Anti-Government Radical
Counselor Jona: Norita’s aide
Counselor Merrick Uda: The People’s Representative
Blaine: Magickal Adept
Conclave
Saaya – Speaker for the Ethlana
Ouct – Speaker for the Veata
Ent – Speaker for the Baas
Ecoatay – Speaker for the Chuchana
Zar – Speaker for the Veick
Ethlana
Xan
Venu
Vex
Vex’s Expedition
Captain Cain
Engineer Zev
About the Author
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amanda Rose is an avid reader and storyteller. Working in a variety of mediums and genres, communicating new ways of thinking is her passion.
Amanda works as an online Health and Fitness coach, Law of Attraction Coach, Actor, Model, and Writer. Residing in Kingston, On
tario, with her husband and 3 cats, Amanda is currently working on her next novel. Get in touch with Amanda by visiting her website, www.AmandaRoseFitness.com
Amanda also loves to help others write their own books. Her course is available online through Udemy: Get Published Workshop | Write, Publish, & Market Your Book
Author’s Other Works
Fire Fury Freedom
The Impending End
A Strange Dream